Agriculture

This report talks about how the adoption of digital technologies in agriculture varies significantly across countries, with lower current adoption rates in low-income countries. Increasing adoption will require addressing supply-side factors, such as rural network coverage and availability of digital applications, and demand-side factors, including skills and knowledge, trust, affordability, and complementary investments.

This brief aims for a better understanding of the intersection between climate resilience and youth employment and where it may be stronger geographically, which is necessary to generate better policy and adaptation options for the future of agriculture and young people.

The study recommends four pathways for the private sector and development actors to serve and support youth: 1) Design for the full range of youth personas and pathways; 2) Customize value chain approaches to address key youth constraints; 3) Use digital solutions to reach youth affordability and at scale, with high potential for impact; 4) Capture opportunities beyond production as enablers.

Investing in young people living in rural areas is key to enhancing agricultural productivity, boosting rural economies, and ensuring food security. This report provides examples of how to re-engage youth in agriculture. It shows how customized educational programs can provide rural youth with the skills and insights needed to engage in farming and adopt environmentally friendly production methods. 

This paper focuses on how the food system can deliver jobs. It provides a framework for understanding the factors determining the number and quality of jobs in the food system, including inclusion of women and youth. It highlights a set of actions that countries can adopt, adapt, and apply to their circumstances to enhance the food system’s contribution to jobs. 

As countries develop, agriculture’s role as domestic employer declines. But the broader agri-food system also expands, and the scope for agriculture-related job creation shifts beyond the farm. This paper elaborates on these trends and reviews several policy options, including inclusive value chain development, better immigration policies, social insurance schemes, and ramp-up in agricultural education and extension. 

This video describes the Integrated Country Approach, an FAO’s youth project in Uganda that provides strategic technical support to Uganda’s government in developing youth inclusive National Policies and Strategies for Youth Employment in Agriculture. Through capacity building, the ability of youth is enhanced to advocate for themselves and to participate in productive agriculture. The videos also explains the FAO-MAAIF model of using youth as champions and role models to inspire their peers to engage in agribusiness. 
 

This report captures the experience of young people in the agrifood system — both those who innovate (innovators) and those they design solutions for (adopters). Instead of looking separately at these groups, the research sees innovators and adopters as part of a larger interconnected landscape, supported by those who contribute to building the enabling environments that help get technologies to communities (promoters). 

This handbook is written for the operational managers in agribusiness companies responsible for integrating smallholder farmers into value chains as suppliers, clients, or customers.

The knowledge brief presents lessons from a World Bank program in Tanzania in establishing a new Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Center (AEC) that provides local companies with access to financial market connections, as well as technical assistance in areas such as production, financial management, and marketing.